Monterey: more piano, gourmet popsicles

Not sure how that Gourmet Popsicles booth is doing here at the Monterey Jazz Festival. The night is kind of chilly. Crowds seem pretty strong, though, and the festival momentum is building. Each year, you can feel it happen, almost hour to hour, as you move around the fairgrounds, testing the music on this stage and that.
Just heard a cool set from pianist Helen Sung and her trio. She played George Shearing’s “Conception,” then one of her own called “Touch,” which felt like time suspended inside an intimate moment. And a bunch of Monk tunes: Funny how Thelonious Monk’s presence is all over the music these days. Earlier tonight, Robert Glasper kept interpolating Monk’s jabs and percussive melodies into his trio’s grooves.
At the Coffee House Gallery, Sung played “Eronel” (associated with Monk, though not his tune), “Bye-ya” and “In Walked Bud.” The music occasionally felt a tad studious, but Sung can really play, has a clear touch and good motion in her lines. And she clearly loves Bud and Herbie. Reuben Rogers, always excellent, was on bass, and Marvin “Smitty” Smith was kicking it on drums. All those years in the “Tonight Show” band didn’t dilute his spirit; he sounds great. In the middle of “Glass Work,” a piece by Sung that was inspired by Philip Glass, Smith started up a sort of West African shimmy beat — think Max Roach on “Garvey’s Ghost.” Suddenly, the musical temperature shot up about 20 degrees.